Crystal Palace v Arsenal Sat 21 December 5.30pm

Panda

Arteta is celebrating his 5th year anniversay as Arsenal manager. Time flies eh. I'd give him a 7.5/10 for the work he's done so far.

Sounds like Rice, Cala and Zinchenko will be in the squad for this too which is good news.

I'd go with:
Raya
Timber-Saliba-Gabriel-MLS
Partey-Rice
Odegaard
Saka-Jesus-Martinelli

And let Odegaard be a 10 and Timber overlap. Half 5 under the lights before Christmas at Selhurst Park will be tough but we aren't in a position to drop any more points.

A lovely 0-2 Saka + Martinelli with the goals will do thanks.

RocktheCasbah

Panda I'm off down the road to Selhurst to watch this, so I'd be absolutely delighted for us to get our league campaign back on track. Positive news on Declan and Riccy, for me Jesus has to start after his midweek heroics and I think we're going to win - albeit not without a fight.

goon

Panda Timber-Saliba-Gabriel-MLS

My worry with this is that we’ll end up double inverting again instead of freeing up Timber to play ball down the right.

HomeSteak

Is Jesus on the left and Havertz as striker ok? I just have a feeling this will be terror ball again. Corners, crosses and pray. We might need Havertz.

Coombs

Raya
Saliba Gabriel
Saka Odegaard

plus whoever else

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

goon why would Timber need to invert from RB?

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Anyone for an Odegaard Rice Havertz midfield? Just thinking of a way to get both Havertz and Jesus into the lineup.

Could be woeful. Could work.

Qwiss

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert that midfield was fairly woeful more often than not when we used it last season. I just want to see Partey back in midfield. Our results this season with Partey in midfield or not is a pretty stark contrast.

TambourineMan

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert we've seen it. It's woeful.

goon

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

You don’t I guess, but Arteta likes at least one of his fullbacks to be reserved, and he obviously prefers that role for Timber given his experience. And MLS naturally likes to venture into midfield, which in turn pushes Merino high and wide instead.

If you had a more conservative full back on the left, Merino can stay in that midfield role and Timber can just bomb forward on the right.

lorddulaarsenal

https://tbrfootball.com/oliver-glasner-has-spotted-one-thing-arsenal-star-bukayo-saka-doesnt-like-doing-in-games/

Go on Olly I dare you to play Mitchell more attacking

goon

lorddulaarsenal

He’s right, it works if you’re able to pen us back and get us defending in our own half. It’s one of the reasons why we’re pretty poor at counter attacks in those situations despite acres of space in behind. It’s the one part of our game I dislike.

USArsenal

Yeah, but he is only partially right. Its not that Saka doesnt like to defend. He defends very well, and started his career as a defender. It is just more work to do both, but that is the same for any forward that has to track back. It also is true for people playing against us.

goon

Qwiss

You’ve both got your wish. Partey in midfield, Kai left 8, Rice on the bench…

Qwiss

goon I'm interested too what Havertz can offer in midfield with Ode and Partey. I'm glad Arteta has seemingly put out a bit more of a front footed midfield too.

IBL

Oh man, hope we can get some midfield control with that team.

awooga83

Have to win today no excuses being only 3 points ahead of this city is a bad indicator in general. This fixture has been a tough one in the past but have to find a way to get the result.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Let's see if Jesus can hold it up while Havertz and Martinelli make runs. I'm sure that's what the plan was in summer 2023.

Qwiss

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert we need Jesus getting onto the second ball after Kai wins it from our long kicks too. Usually Saka is the only one who does that regularly. If Jesus can set Saka free a bit more it'd be great too.

Gazza M

jesus and havertz really looked like they'd more synergy on paper as a 1-2 punch. jesus drops in and links up, havertz makes runs beyond. let's see some of that today

lorddulaarsenal

Box crashing.

Like the look of the line up